... read, When His Majesty the Cat Receives in His Drawing Room.” The reason for this is that the French word for cat and the Persian Shah are pronounced in the same way, and the Government concerned thought that a pun was implied. In fact, it is of such incidents ...

... attacks the king. The word oomes through the old French “eschec,” “eechac” from the Middle Latin form, “scacous” of the Persian Shah, i.e., king, and was early applied to token, ticket, or counterfoil. When first introduced into ordinary city parlance ...